Far East Network

FEN (Far East Network) is a group project made up of musicians from Singapore, Japan, China, and Korea who play improvised music. It was first started on the suggestion of globally renowned musician Otomo Yoshihide. Each member is an artist who works individually on the experimental music scene in his respective country. They have been supporting each other's activities by organizing concerts in their own countries, and this relationship became the motivation to form FEN. Currently formed of Otomo Yoshihide, Yan Jun, Yuen Chee Wai & Ryu Hankil.

Otomo Yoshihide

Otomo Yoshihide moves between free jazz, noise, improvisation, composition and the unclassifiable with a generosity that opens up the possibilities for expression in all of the constellations with which he's involved. He spent his teenage years in Fukushima, about 300 kilometers north of Tokyo. Influenced by his father, an engineer, Otomo began making electrical devices such as a radio and an electronic oscillator. In junior high school, his hobby was making sound collages using open-reel tape recorders. This was his first experience creating music. Soon after entering high school he formed a band which played rock and jazz, with Otomo on guitar. It wasn't long, however, before he became a free jazz aficionado, listening to artists like Ornette Coleman, Erick Dolphy and Derek Bailey; and hearing music, both on disk and at concerts, by Japanese free jazz artists. Especially influenced by alto sax player Kaoru Abe and guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi, Otomo decided to play free jazz.

In 1990, Otomo started what was to become Ground Zero. Until it disbanded in March 1998, the band was at the core of his musical creativity, while it underwent several changes in style and membership. Since Ground Zero, Otomo has embraced minimal improvisation, film music and the jazz/big band conceptions of his New Jazz Quartet/Quintet/Orchestra.

Hankil Ryu

Hankil RYU is a musician from Seoul, born in 1975. He has organised a monthly event called RELAY since 2005 and established his own publishing office called The Manual. He is interested in finding an alternative musical structure possessed by abandoned objects like clockworks, typewriters and telephones. After discovering the instrumental possibilities of a typewriter, he started to collaboration project called 'A.Typist' with writers lo wie and Taeyong KIM. The collaboration's results were released by The Manual and Mediabus as three CD+Book sets. He is member of FEN(Far East Network) since 2008 and start digital beats project called called 'pilot Ryu' since 2015. it is opposite approach from his past works.
http://themanual.co.kr/

Yan Jun

Yan Jun is musician and poet based in Beijing, who currently lives in Berlin for an artist residency (daad).
He is working on improvised music, experimental music, field recording, organizing and writing. alongside of at venues, he goes to audience's home to play with the environment and what else available in the room (Living Room Tour project).
Also amplifying body movements or other performative elements in a simple manner.
He is member of FEN, Tea Rockers Quintet and Impro Committee. and founder of the guerrilla label Sub Jam.
yanjun.org